Atari

Atari is a video game company popular for its video games such as Frogger and Asteroids. It is part of the making of Pac-Mania. Atari also recreated Pac-Man for the Atari 2600 as well as for other game systems and home computers in the early 1980s.

Pac-Man and controversy

the cover for the game.

When Atari recreated Pac-Man without permission from Namco they were instantly sued. Also, the new Pac-Man version didn't nearly have good enough graphics as the original. The ghosts would flicker and the character was slower making the original Namco version a much better game. Rumor has it that Atari buried 5,000,000 unsold copies of the game, along with E.T. The Extra Terrestrial in a New Mexico desert. Atari has also recreated Dig Dug and made their own version of Galaga.

There are many reasons the 2600 version of Pac-Man turned out to be so technologically inferior. A man named Todd Frye was asked to program a prototype, he asked Atari many times to be allowed to use a 8K rom cartridge, but however Atari forced him to use a 4K rom cartridge. Due to stress from time and money limitations, he went to Atari CEO Ray Kassar to demand royalties, threatening that he would leave Atari for Activision. Having no other choice, they worked out a royalty agreement of 10 cents per copy manufactured if Frye completed the game on time. After he completed a prototype of the game, Atari wanted the game out by the holiday season, so instead of working on a prototype and turning it into a commercial-ready game, Atari simply released the prototype instead.